More than anchor changes planned for Action News Jacksonville

In this image - Exteriors of the Clear Channel building home of WTEV CH-47 Action News and WAWS Fox 30 news operation where several long-term on air anchors were told that their contracts were not being renewed. The building is on Central Parkway in Jacksonville and was photographed on Thursday May 29, 2014.

More changes are on the way for two Jacksonville television stations that recently announced major overhauls to their news anchors. The latest changes will be to the names of the broadcast outlets.

WAWS TV-30 and WTEV TV-47, both owned by Cox Media Group, are about to get call letter changes. The Federal Communications Commission granted the request, filed on July 30, said Jim Zerwekh, general manager of both stations.

Cox officials will change WAWS to WFOX and WTEV to WJAX. Zerwekh said the actual dates of the changes haven’t been set.

“These call letter changes are natural fits for our TV stations. It symbolizes our commitment to our local communities and showcases the rebirth of our two great stations,” Zerwekh said in an email Tuesday.

An FCC official in Washington said call letter change requests are not unusual for television and radio stations and the agency receives dozens of requests and grants changes every month.

Zerwekh said the change from WTEV to WJAX was aimed directly at clearly identifying with the local market. Changing from WAWS to WFOX better aligns the station to the Fox network, he said.

The call letter change for the two television stations comes on the heels of other major changes.

In May, Action News, the moniker for the news operations at both stations, informed anchors Mark Spain, Paige Kelton, Tera Barz, Mike Barz and Lynnsey Gardner that their contracts would not be renewed.

Last week, Bob Longo, news director for Action News, said he has already sent two replacement anchors from within Cox with the transfer of John Bachman from Atlanta and Tenikka Smith-Hughes from Charlotte, N.C. Longo said they’ll serve as the main anchors to replace Spain and Kelton at 5, 5:30, 6, 10 and 11 p.m., though that transition has not yet taken place. Kelton is the only current anchor who will remain with the station, in the capacity of special projects manager.

Longo said the changes were necessary because the stations were looking for a “fresh approach, new vision and new energy.”

Cox bought the stations from Newport Television in December 2012.

The first few months of Cox ownership of the television stations were relatively quiet, at least publicly. Then Action News picked up sports anchor and reporter Dan Hicken from First Coast News, a pair of stations owned by Gannett Co. and broadcasting on WTLV TV-12 and WJXX TV-25.

Longo was brought in to oversee news operations for Actions News this year, transferring from WESH TV-2 in Orlando. A few months later, the changing of anchors was announced.

As for the call letter changes, this is not the first time one of the stations has changed identification. WTEV was previously WNFT until 1996. And before that, the station was WXAO, according to FCC records.

WAWS has kept that set of call letters from its inception in 1981, according to FCC records.

The new GM has to do something to justify himself.... Wiping out the local newsteam serving both stations doesn't count.. I am pretty shocked that a small town like Jacksonville will get WFOX which you think would be used in a place like NYC that has WCBS,WNBC,and WABC. The FOX outlet in NYC is WNYW...